Method and Device for Managing Resource Allocation in Solid-State Drive

This application claims priority from Indian Patent Application No. 202411095617, filed on Dec. 4, 2024, and Indian Patent Application No. 202411095617 filed on Feb. 12, 2025, in the Indian Patent Office, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to memory devices, and more particularly relates to a method and a device for managing resource allocation in solid-state drives (SSDs).

NAND flash-based storage devices, such as Solid-State Drives (SSDs), and Universal Flash Storage (UFS), have become common in modern computing systems. These storage solutions are widely employed across a diverse range of applications, including consumer electronics, enterprise servers, and data centers. Regardless of the specific application requirements, SSD hardware is traditionally reserved for both read and write operations, with distinct resources allocated to each task.

In many use cases, such as Machine Learning (ML) applications, the majority of operations performed on storage devices are read-intensive. ML workloads, particularly those involving deep learning models, require the retrieval of large datasets from storage to be processed by graphic processor unit (GPUs), or other accelerators. Despite SSDs'ability to quickly retrieve data, performance bottlenecks still occur in scenarios where storage is not fully optimized.

One common issue arises when all available SSD read resources are consumed by the constant flow of data reads. In such a case, the SSD must wait for read resources to become available before the SSD can continue serving data requests. This waiting time, referred to as data stalls, directly impacts the throughput of ML applications, despite the fact that the write resources on the SSD remain underutilized. In such situations, the SSD's read performance is unnecessarily constrained, while write resources, which could potentially be repurposed, remain idle.

These data stalls during ingestion may substantially delay training and model inference times, especially in deep learning models that require vast amounts of data to be accessed and processed in real time. As a result, improving the efficiency of SSD resource utilization is crucial, particularly for applications with read-heavy workloads, such as ML training and inference.

One or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide a device and a method for managing resource allocation in a solid-state drive (SSD). The device and the method may optimize the use of SSD resources during data processing, reduce wait times for read resources, and enhance read performance.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method for managing resource allocation in a solid-state drive (SSD) may include: obtaining an activation request to switch to a prolonged read mode, wherein the activation request indicates an amount of required additional read resources; and based on the SSD being in a default mode and the activating request being obtained: determining whether the SSD has a number of available write resources to be converted into the additional read resources, and activating the prolonged read mode on the SSD, based on the number of available write resources for conversion into the additional read resources.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a solid-state drive (SSD) device may include: a memory storing instructions; and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to: obtain an activation request to switch to a prolonged read mode, wherein the activation request indicates an amount of required additional read resources; and based on the SSD being in a default mode and the activating request being obtained: determine whether the SSD has a number of available write resources to be converted into the additional read resources; and activate the prolonged read mode on the SSD, based on the number of write available resources for conversion to the additional read resources.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium may instructions to be executed by at least one processor to perform a method for managing resource allocation in a solid-state drive (SSD). The method may include: obtaining an activation request that indicates an amount of additional read resources required, based on read resources required for a given task exceeding originally available read resources; switching from a default mode of the SSD to a prolonged read mode of the SSD based on the activation request by determining available write resources of the SSD for conversion into the additional read resources, and allocating the available write resources as the additional read resources for the given task; and executing the given task based on the originally available read resources and the additional read resources.

Example embodiments are described in greater detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the present document, the word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment or implementation of the

present subject matter described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail below. It should be understood, however, that it is not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the disclosure is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and the scope of the disclosure.

The terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a setup, device or method that comprises a list of components or steps does not include only those components or steps but may include other components or steps not expressly listed or inherent to such setup or device or method. In other words, one or more elements in a device or system or apparatus proceeded by “comprises . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other elements or additional elements in the device or system or apparatus.

In the following detailed description of the embodiments of the disclosure, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and which are shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the disclosure may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the disclosure, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. The following description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.

1 FIG. is an environment depicting allocation of available write resources to read resources, according to one or more embodiments.

100 102 104 106 104 106 104 106 104 106 1062 1064 The environmentmay include a host, a computing device, and a solid-state drive (SSD)located within the computing device. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the solid-state drivemay be located outside of the computing deviceand the solid-state drivemay be connected to the computing deviceby any method known to a person skilled in the art. Further, the solid-state drivemay include write resourcesand read resources.

1062 1064 106 102 104 106 102 1062 1064 106 102 The write resourcesand read resourcesin a default mode may include a default number of resources allocated to the SSD. The hostutilizes the computing devicefor various types of usage. The requirement of the resources of the SSDmay vary depending on the type of usage of the host. The default number of write resourcesand read resourcesof the SSDin the default mode may be in any proportion as predefined by the host.

102 104 1064 1062 104 104 1064 1062 104 If the hostis utilizing the computing deviceto run large machine learning models, the requirement for read resourcesmay be higher than for the write resources. Once all available resources are utilized, the computing devicewaits for utilized resources to be freed. In this scenario, the computing devicewaits for the read resourcesto become available, even though write resourcesare not utilized at all, as not all write resources are required by the computing deviceat the same time.

102 106 104 1064 106 1064 In this situation, the hostmay request the activation of a prolonged read mode of the SSD, or the computing devicemay automatically activate the prolonged read mode when the required resources for running a task (e.g., executing a training or inference process of a machine learning model) exceed the available read resource. The prolonged read mode of the SSDmay address the increased demand for read resources by temporarily converting some of the available write resources into the read resources.

2 FIG. is an architecture of a solid-state drive (SSD) device for managing resource allocation in SSD, according to one or more embodiments.

200 202 204 206 208 210 212 214 1062 1064 106 The architecture block diagramincludes a command fetcher module, a command process module, a tune hardware resource module, a resource allocator module, a direct memory access (DMA) manager module, a command completion module, a resource release module, and write resourcesand read resourceswithin SSD.

202 102 102 202 202 204 204 The command fetcher moduleis a controller whose function is to fetch/retrieve requests from the host. All different types of requests and commands from the hostare received by the command fetcher module. The command fetcher modulethen provides the requests to the command process moduleand the command process modulethen process the request.

204 204 210 206 204 1062 1064 The command process modulemay identify the purpose of each request. The command process modulemay identify the request as a prolonged read mode request and forward the same to the DMA manager moduleand the tune hardware resource module. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a plurality of SSDs may be present within a computing system. The command process moduleidentifies the corresponding SSD by processing the prolonged read mode request. In a non-limiting example, the prolonged read mode request may include a request to convert 90% of the available write resourcesinto read resources.

206 1062 1064 206 1062 1064 1062 1064 1064 1064 Tune hardware resource modulere-allocates the available write resourcesto the read resourcesbased on the prolong read mode request. Continuing with the example, the tune hardware resource modulemay convert 90% of the available write resourcesinto read resources. Specifically, all available write resourcesfrom 6-50 may be converted into read resources. As a result, the read resourcesmay now include the original read resources(1-50) and additional read resources derived from the converted write resources (6-50 of the available write resources).

208 106 208 210 The resource allocator modulestores an updated information of the resource re-allocation of the SSD. The resource allocator modulesends the updated information of the resource re-allocation to the DMA manager module.

210 204 208 210 1064 106 210 212 1064 106 The DMA manager modulemay receive the prolonged read mode request from the command process moduleand the updated information of the resource re-allocation from the resource allocator module. The DMA manager modulemay then determine whether the resource re-allocation of the available write resources to read resourcesof the SSDis correctly processed. The DMA manager modulethen updates the command completion moduleif the resource re-allocation of the available write resources to read resourcesof the SSDis successfully processed.

212 210 102 214 212 1064 1064 214 The command completion modulereceives the input from the DMA manager moduleand updates the hoston the successful completion of the prolonged read mode request. The resource release modulereceives the resource re-allocation information from the command completion moduleas when the available write resources are allocated to read resources, the computing device must know the starting address of the available write resources and the read resourcesas well as the ending address of the write and read resources. The resource release modulethen release the available write resources and add the available write resources as additional read resources.

202 102 202 204 204 206 210 Further, the command fetcher modulemay receive a request for deactivation of the prolonged read mode from the host. The command fetcher modulemay then sends the deactivation prolonged read mode request to the command process module. The command process modulethen process the requests and identify the type of the request and transmits the prolonged request to the corresponding tune hardware resource moduleand DMA manager module.

204 Further, the command process moduleidentifies whether the prolonged read mode includes information specifying a duration for which the prolonged read mode should remain active. After the specified duration expires, the prolonged read mode is deactivated, hence automatically reverting the SSD to the default mode.

206 1062 208 106 208 210 The tune hardware resource modulethen reallocates the additional read resources to the write resourcesbased on the default mode. The default mode of the SSD includes a default number of read and write resources. The resource allocator modulestores updated information regarding the resource re-allocation of the SSD. The resource allocator modulesends the updated information of the resource re-allocation to the DMA manager module.

210 204 208 210 210 212 The DMA manager modulemay receive the deactivation prolonged read mode request from the command process moduleand the updated information of the resource re-allocation from the resource allocator module. The DMA manager modulemay then determine whether the default mode of the SSD is correctly processed. The DMA manager modulethen updates the command completion moduleif the default mode of the SSD is successfully processed.

212 210 102 214 212 1064 1064 214 1062 The command completion modulereceives the input from the DMA manager moduleand updates the hoston the successful completion of the activation of default mode. The resource release modulereceives the resource re-allocation information from the command completion moduleas when the available write resources are allocated to read resources, the computing device must know the starting address of the available write resources and the read resourcesas well as the ending address of the write and read resources. The resource release modulethen releases the additional read resources and reallocates the additional read resources as write resources.

3 FIG. shows a block diagram of a solid-state drive (SSD) device for managing resource allocation in SSD, according to one or more embodiments.

300 302 304 306 300 300 300 306 302 304 The solid-state drive (SSD) devicemay include a memory, one or more processorsand an input/output (I/O) interface. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the SSD devicemay also implement a method for managing resource allocation in solid-state drive (SSD). In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the SSD deviceitself implements a method for managing resource allocation in solid-state drive (SSD) with one or more custom fields in a computing device/electronic system/data processing unit/digital processing unit/control system by using one or more units configured within the SSD device, and the said one or more units are capable of implementing the features as disclosed in the present disclosure. The I/O interfaceconnects the memoryand the one or more processorsto other system components, enabling efficient data transfer and communication.

300 300 300 300 It may be noted that, in some embodiments, the SSD devicemay include more or fewer components than those depicted herein. The various components of the SSD devicemay be implemented using hardware, software, firmware, and/or any combinations thereof. Further, the various components of the SSD devicemay be operably coupled with each other. For example, various components of the SSD devicemay be capable of communicating with each other using communication channel media (e.g., buses, interconnects, or the like).

304 304 In an embodiment, the one or more processorsmay be embodied as a multi-core processor, a single core processor, or a combination of one or more multi-core processors and/or one or more single core processors. For example, the one or more processorsmay be embodied as one or more of various processing devices, such as, but not limited to, a coprocessor, a microprocessor, a controller, a digital signal processor (DSP), a processing circuitry with or without an accompanying DSP, or various other processing devices including, a microcontroller (MCU), a hardware accelerator, a special-purpose computer chip, or the like.

302 304 304 302 In an embodiment, the memorymay be configured to store machine executable instructions, which may be referred to herein as instructions. In an embodiment, the one or more processorsmay be embodied as an executor of software instructions. As such, the one or more processorsmay be capable of executing the instructions stored in the memoryto perform one or more operations described herein.

302 304 302 302 The memorymay be any type of storage accessible to the one or more processorsto perform respective functionalities. For example, the memorymay include one or more volatile and/or non-volatile memories, or a combination thereof. For example, the memorymay be embodied as semiconductor memories, such as, but not limited to, flash memory, mask read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM), random access memory (RAM), or the like.

304 102 306 102 The one or more processorsare configured to receive from a hostvia I/O interface, a request to switch to a prolonged read mode. The request includes an amount of required additional read resources. In one non-limiting embodiment, the required additional read resources may be indicated by the hostin form of percentage of write resources required to be allocated to read resources to fulfill the requirement of the additional read resources.

304 304 The one or more processorsare configured to detect whether the SSD is in the default mode. Further the one or more processorsare configured to determine whether the SSD has a number of available write resources to be converted into additional read resources, in response to detection that the SSD is in the default mode.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the available write resources may indicate unused write resources of the SSD in the default mode. Further, the conversion of available write resources to the additional read resources is temporary and may be in effect as long as the prolonged read mode is activated.

304 The one or more processorsare configured to activate a prolonged read mode on the SSD, if the number of write resources are available for conversion to the additional read resources. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more processors are configured to switch a mode of the SSD from the default mode to the prolonged read mode and convert the number of available write resources into the additional read resources.

304 102 306 102 304 In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more processorsare further configured to receive a request from the hostvia I/O interfacefor deactivation of the prolonged read mode from the host. The one or more processorsare then configured to switch a mode of the SSD from the prolonged read mode to the default mode and reallocate the read resources and the write resources based on the default mode. The default mode of the SSD includes a default number of read and write resources.

304 302 102 In one non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, the request for switching to a prolonged read mode may also specify a duration for which the prolonged read mode should remain active. Once the duration expired, the one or more processorsmay be configured to deactivate the prolonged read mode, hence automatically reverting the SSD to the default mode. The memorystores the requests of the host.

300 300 300 300 Thus, the SSD devicefacilitates a technically advanced solution for managing resource allocation in SSDs. The SSD deviceimproves the resource efficiency by utilizing unused available write resources. Further, the SSD deviceimproves the overall performance by increasing the availability of read resources by bringing in additional read resources from the write sources. The SSD devicemanages the resources so efficiently that more resources are available to the host at any given time, thereby minimizing waiting periods when the resource pool is fully utilized.

4 FIG. shows a flowchart illustrating a method for managing resource allocation in solid-state drive (SSD), according to one or embodiments.

402 400 At step, the methodincludes receiving from a host, a request to switch to a prolonged read mode. The request indicates an amount of required additional read resources. In one non-limiting embodiment, the required additional read resources may be indicated by the host in form of percentage of write resources required to be allocated to read resources to order to meet the requirement of the additional read resources.

404 400 400 At step, the methodincludes detecting whether the SSD is in the default mode. Further, the methodincludes determining whether the SSD has a number of available write resources for conversion into the additional read resources, in response to detecting the SSD is in a default mode.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the available write resources may indicate unused write resources of the SSD in the default mode. Further, the conversion of available write resources into the additional read resources is temporary and may be in effect as long as the prolonged read mode is activated.

406 400 At step, the methodincludes activating a prolonged read mode on the SSD, if the number of write resources are available for conversion to the additional read resources. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method includes switching a mode of the SSD from the default mode to the prolonged read mode and converting the available number of available write resources to the additional read resources.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the method further includes receiving a request for deactivation of the prolonged read mode from the host. The method then includes switching a mode of the SSD from the prolonged read mode to the default mode and reallocating the read resources and the write resources based on the default mode. The default mode of the SSD includes default number of read and write resources.

400 In one non-limiting embodiment of the present disclosure, the request for switching to the prolonged read mode may include a duration for which the prolonged read mode may remain activated. After the duration expires, the methodmay include deactivating the prolonged read mode, hence automatically reverting the SSD to the default mode.

400 400 400 400 Thus, the methodfacilitates a technically advanced solution for managing resource allocation in SSDs. The methodimproves the resource efficiency by utilizing unused available write resources. Further, the methodimproves the overall performance of the SSD by increasing the availability of read resources by bringing in additional read resources from the write sources. The methodmanages the resources so efficiently that more resources are available to the host at any given time, thereby minimizing waiting periods when the resource pool is fully utilized.

402 404 406 The sequence of operations of the methods at steps,andmay not be necessarily executed in the same order as they are presented. Further, one or more operations may be grouped together and performed in form of a single step, or one operation may have several sub-steps that may be performed in a parallel and/or in a sequential manner.

Furthermore, one or more computer-readable storage media may be utilized in implementing embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. A computer-readable storage medium may refer to any type of physical memory on which information and/or data that may be readable by a processor may be stored. Thus, a computer-readable storage medium may store instructions for execution by one or more processors, including instructions for causing the one or more processors to perform steps or stages consistent with the embodiments described herein. The term “computer-readable medium” may be understood to include tangible items and exclude carrier waves and transient signals, e.g., may be non-transitory. Examples may include, but may not be limited to, RAM, ROM, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, hard drives, compact disc (CD) ROMs (CD-ROMs), digital versatile drives (DVDs), flash drives, disks, other physical storage media, or the like.

According to an aspect of the disclosure, a method for managing resource allocation in solid-state drive (SSD) may include: obtaining an activation request to switch to a prolonged read mode, wherein the activation request indicates an amount of required additional read resources; and based on the SSD being in a default mode and the activating request being obtained: determining whether the SSD has a number of available write resources to be converted into the additional read resources, and activating the prolonged read mode on the SSD, based on the number of available write resources for conversion into the additional read resources.

The prolonged read mode may be activated by switching a mode of the SSD from the default mode to the prolonged read mode, and converting the number of available write resources to the additional read resources.

The method for managing resource allocation in the SSD may further include: receiving a deactivation request to deactivate the prolonged read mode; switching a mode of the SSD from the prolonged read mode to the default mode based on the deactivation request; and reallocating the write resources based on the default mode indicating a default number of read and write resources.

The activation requests may indicate a duration for which the prolonged read mode should remain active, and the method may further include automatically reverting the SSD to the default mode and releasing the write sources converted into the additional read resources when the duration expires.

The activation request may include a requested percentage of the available write resources to be converted into the additional read resources, and the activating the prolonged read mode may include allocating the requested percentage of the available write resources to the additional read resources.

The obtaining the activation request may include obtaining the activation request through an input and output interface.

The obtaining the activation request may include obtaining the activation request that is automatically generated based on resources required to execute a given task exceeding available read resources.

According to another aspect of the disclosure, a solid-state drive (SSD) device may include a memory storing instructions, and one or more processors configured to execute the instructions to: obtain an activation request to switch to a prolonged read mode, wherein the activation request indicates an amount of required additional read resources; and based on the SSD being in a default mode and the activating request being obtained: determine whether the SSD has a number of available write resources to be converted into the additional read resources, and activate the prolonged read mode on the SSD, based on the number of write available resources for conversion to the additional read resources.

To activate the prolonged read mode on the SSD, the one or more processors may switch a mode of the SSD from the default mode to the prolonged read mode, and convert the available number of available write resources to the additional read resources.

The one or more processors may detect whether the SSD is in the default mode.

The one or more processors may receive a deactivation request to deactivate the prolonged read mode, switch a mode of the SSD from the prolonged read mode to the default mode based on the deactivation request, and reallocate the write resources based on the default mode indicating a default number of read and write resources.

The activation request may indicate a duration for which the prolonged read mode should remain active, and the one or more processors are configured to: automatically revert the SSD to the default mode and releasing the write sources converted into the additional read resources when the duration expires.

The activation requests may indicate a requested percentage of the available write resources to be converted into the additional read resources, and the one or more processors are configured to allocate the requested percentage of the available write resources to the additional read resources.

The SSD device may include an input and output interface. The one or more processors may receive the activation request through the input and output interface.

The one or more processors may automatically generate the activation request based on resources required to execute a given task exceeding available read resources.

According to another aspect of the disclosure, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions to be executed by at least one processor may be provided to perform a method for managing resource allocation in a solid-state drive (SSD). The method may include obtaining an activation request that indicates an amount of additional read resources required, based on read resources required for a given task exceeding originally available read resources; switching from a default mode to a prolonged read mode in the SSD based on the activation request by determining available write resources of the SSD for conversion into the additional read resources, and allocating the available write resources as the additional read resources for the given task; and executing the given task based on the originally available read resources and the additional read resources.

It may be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” may be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” may be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” may be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” and the like). For example, as an aid to understanding, the detail description may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce recitations. However, the use of such phrases may not be construed to imply that the introduction of a recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular part of description containing such introduced recitation to disclosure containing only one such recitation, even when the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” may typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”) are included in the recitations; the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce such recitations. In addition, even if a specific part of the introduced description recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation may typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations or two or more recitations).

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, other aspects and embodiments may be apparent to those skilled in the art. The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the scope and spirit being indicated by the foregoing detailed description.